Naomie puts on 15 years in three days in the role of her life: Actress forced to rapidly film scenes for Moonlight after visa mix-up

Naomie Harris had just three days to play what has turned out to be the role of her career: Paula, a drug-fuelled, single mother struggling to raise her son Chiron in a rough neighbourhood of Miami in Moonlight.

It’s a piece of visual poetry directed by Barry Jenkins.

In the picture, Chiron (who is played by three actors during different stages of his life) befriends a drug dealer called Juan (Mahershala Ali).

'Juan is the man who sells drugs to me in the film,’ says Naomie. ‘I should hate this man, but he becomes a father figure to my son.’

Because of a mix-up over visas, the actress was allowed to film in Miami for only three days. Luckily, she had thoroughly researched the part before she flew out.

For Naomie, who neither drinks nor smokes, that meant resorting to . . . YouTube. ‘It’s an important aid for an actor,’ she says. ‘I watched videos of people addicted to drugs.’

There was no time to work with the other actors when she arrived on set.

‘I got there and the cameras started rolling. Over the course of three days I aged 15 years. It was a combination of make-up, wigs and a change in physicality,’ she says.

‘We had to cram in so much that I probably felt 15 years older!’

She plays Paula, a drug-fuelled, single mother struggling to raise her son Chiron in a rough neighbourhood of Miami

Moonlight is on every best film list and has received plaudits across the board.

It is one of the big three in contention for major awards, along with La La Land and Manchester By The Sea.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

Naomie collected a best supporting actress honour from the National Board of Review in New York on Wednesday, and on Sunday she’s in the running for a Golden Globe — against Viola Davis for Fences and Nicole Kidman for tearjerker Lion.

‘Let’s get out of fantasy land,’ she tells me. ‘Have you seen how brilliant Viola is?’

Well, OK, but Bafta and Oscar nominations would still be pretty nice for three days under the influence.

Moonlight opens in Britain on February 17.

Who plays the Ferryman? Could it be Paddy...

Paddy Considine is in negotiations to star in Jez Butterworth’s new play

Paddy Considine is in negotiations to star in Jez Butterworth’s new play, directed by Sam Mendes.

The actor, who made his name collaborating with film makers Shane Meadows and Pawel Pawlikowski on their early pictures, will take one of three leading roles in Butterworth’s The Ferryman, which will run at the Royal Court from April 24 through May 20. It’s then likely to transfer to the Gielgud Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.

Butterworth’s play, with a cast of 30 — including three sets of four children — is about four generations of a family in Northern Ireland, and is set against the backdrop of the hunger strike in 1981.

Considine has had an extraordinary career in movies and television. Just recently, he played a priest on Peaky Blinders, and a detective in The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher. But I’ve always been struck by his work as a writer and director.

His film Tyrannosaur, with Olivia Colman and Peter Mullan, remains a searing piece of movie making. Another picture — Journeyman — which he wrote, directed, and stars in, awaits release. He’s also lead singer with rock band Riding The Low.

Rehearsals for The Ferryman will start in either late February or early March.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Court said she was not able to confirm my report, though she advised that casting would be announced at the end of this month.

Sonia Friedman — recently voted Number One on The Stage newspaper’s Top 100 power list — is producing the transfer, with Neal Street Productions.

MR KIPLING'S EXCEEDINGLY GOOD DUE BACK TOGETHER AT THE OLD VIC

David Haig will be reunited with Daniel Radcliffe in the forthcoming Old Vic production of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

David Haig is looking forward to being reunited with Daniel Radcliffe for the first time in a decade.

The pair appeared together in the screen version of Haig’s play My Boy Jack, about Rudyard Kipling’s search for his son, who was fighting in the trenches during World War I.

Haig (right) has now been cast as the Player — a role he described as a ‘Shakespearean Barnum’ — in the forthcoming Old Vic production of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, Tom Stoppard’s ingenious first hit about two minor characters from Hamlet who are given centre stage.

Radcliffe will play Rosencrantz, with Joshua McGuire as Guildenstern.

Haig, who starred in the TV film of Witness For The Prosecution on BBC TV over the Christmas break, said he will be working with director David Leveaux to ‘re-evaluate’ the ringmaster role in the Stoppard comedy. Although he took part in one of the Old Vic’s 24 Hour Plays, Rosencrantz And Guildenstern will mark his official Old Vic debut. And the actor said he enjoyed working with Radcliffe (left), who was then trying to carve out a professional identity for himself that wasn’t forever linked with Harry Potter.

‘He’s very shrewd,’ Haig said. ‘The great thing about Dan is that he’s interested in other people, and other things. You feel that you are talking to somebody who’s properly grounded.’

In other casting, Luke Mullins will play Hamlet, Marianne Oldham is Gertrude, Helen Wilson will be Ophelia, William Chubb is Polonius, and Louisa Beadel one of the players.

Casey Affleck's brilliant performance

Casey Affleck is in the running for major awards

Casey Affleck is in the running for major awards, thanks to his brilliant performance as a man torn apart by grief in Kenneth Lonergan’s haunting film Manchester By The Sea (it’s impossible to imagine this picture without him).

Now, the actor is preparing to star in a new film, Light Of My Life, about a man bringing up his young daughter in the woods.

Affleck will direct the film too. Manchester By The Sea opens in in the UK next week.